Method guide · Work with a structured grid
Multipartial Facilitation Check
Understand each confirmed position while making unequal power and risk visible, without treating harm or rights violations as symmetrical opinions.
- People
- 3–24
- Base procedure time
- 25 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Explore through dialogue; Organise and narrow ideas.
English guide
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How this method works
A method for understanding each position with confirmation from the person concerned without erasing differences in power and risk. Place positions in their owners' words, separate interests and impacts, and make inequalities in speaking opportunities, resources, decision authority, and risk explicit. Allow passing, anonymous correction, individual responses, and leaving, and design conditions that support participation. Do not make harm, violence, harassment, discrimination, or rights violations symmetrical as mere opinion differences, or conclude with mutual understanding alone. Separate formal safety, consultation, and remedy procedures from the facilitator's judgements of legitimacy. The outputs are confirmed positions, power differences, support conditions, and rights boundaries. This description is a distinct adaptation, with changes, of Multipartiality by Rhizome, published in Commons Library, under CC BY-SA 4.0, and is provided under the same terms.
Phase schedule
Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.
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- Check passing, confidentiality, safety, and rights boundaries0–5 minutes from the start (5 minutes)
Action: Check boundaries. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
- Place positions in their owners' words and receive corrections5–10 minutes from the start (5 minutes)
Action: Check positions. Participation: Groups of 3–6.
Shared record
- Separate interests and impacts10–15 minutes from the start (5 minutes)
Action: Separate impacts. Participation: Groups of 3–6.
Shared record
- Show differences in voice, resources, authority, and risk15–20 minutes from the start (5 minutes)
Action: Show power differences. Participation: Groups of 3–6.
Shared record
- Choose participation support and formal procedures20–25 minutes from the start (5 minutes)
Action: Choose conditions. Participation: Everyone and co-facilitator.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 5 minutes, check one issue and boundaries for passing, anonymous correction, leaving, confidentiality, safety, and rights.
- For 5 minutes, write each position on the five-field sheet in words authorised by the person concerned, and receive corrections.
- For 5 minutes, separate interests each position seeks to protect from impacts it receives, without making representatives of people.
- For 5 minutes, show differences in speaking opportunities, resources, decision authority, and risk in a separate field.
- For 5 minutes, choose participation-support conditions and the next dialogue or formal support/remedy procedures.
If something changes
If
Even one instance of harm, violence, harassment, discrimination, or a rights violation is indicated.
Then
Stop the mutual-understanding process; do not make it symmetrical as an opinion difference. Prioritise the person's safety and formal consultation/remedy procedures.
If
Even one person does not want their position explained, corrected, or recorded.
Then
Allow passing, anonymous correction, individual responses, or leaving without asking why, and do not have others speak on their behalf.
If
The facilitator begins judging one side's legitimacy or making factual findings in the session.
Then
Stop recording and dialogue, check with the co-facilitator, and separate understanding positions from formal safety and rights determinations.
Preparation
Materials
- One self-made five-field sheet per group for position, interests, impacts, power, and support
- One pass/anonymous-correction/individual-response/leave card set per person
- One set per group of cards for differences in speaking, resources, decision authority, and risk
- One formal-consultation/discrimination-complaint/remedy route card per person
- One broad-tip pen per person
Room and setup
- Handle one issue and positions confirmed by the people concerned; first explain passing, anonymous correction, individual responses, leaving, confidentiality, and formal support
- Place interests and impacts separately from inequalities in speaking opportunities, resources, decision authority, and risk. Do not turn individuals or absent people into representatives
- Do not make harm, discrimination, harassment, or rights violations symmetrical as mere opinion differences, or end with mutual understanding alone. Separate facilitator judgements of legitimacy from formal safety and rights determinations
Adjust for people and time
Use one group for 3–6 people, two for 7–12, three for 13–18, and four for 19–24, with sizes differing by no more than one person and each group containing 3–6. Cover the same single issue, without groups by attribute or representative groups for each position. With 25 or more, use separate sessions.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Retain power and risk inequalities, consent to wording and records, confidentiality, and choices to pass, correct anonymously, answer individually, or leave. Do not appoint others to speak for unwilling or absent people. Harm, violence, harassment, discrimination, and rights violations require safety and formal remedy rather than symmetrical opinion handling. Stop facilitator adjudication and check with co-facilitation, keeping formal determinations separate.
Manuscript's recorded references
These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.
- Commons Library / Rhizome Facilitation Tools and Techniques: Multipartiality
https://commonslibrary.org/facilitation-tools-and-techniques/#h-multipartiality
Adaptation under CC-BY-SA-4.0; changes made
- Conditions for applying CC-BY-SA-4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Diagram, print, and video language
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Editorial provenance
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